POLICE CONFIRM DEAD PARTYGOER HAD TAKEN ECSTASY

AUCKLAND -- Island partygoer Jamie Langridge had enough designer drug
Ecstasy in his system to kill him, police say.

The 24-year-old died this month after collapsing at a party on Pakatoa
Island, in the Hauraki Gulf.

Police then refused to confirm rumours he had taken the drug Ecstasy
but said yesterday that he had a "relatively high level of MDMA"
(Ecstasy) in his system.

"It was within the range where fatalities have been recorded to have
occurred," Detective Senior Sergeant Stu Allsop-Smith said. He said
the final cause of death would be decided by the Coroner but police
had released details of the death before a hearing to warn about the
extreme danger of the drug.

If Ecstasy was confirmed as the cause of Mr Langridge's death it would
be the second Ecstasy death in New Zealand.

Ngaire O'Neill, 27, died after taking the drug at a Karangahape Road,
Auckland, nightclub in October 1998.

"People need to be aware these so-called designer drugs are not
safe."

Mr Allsop-Smith said because the drug was made in illegal
laboratories, there were no quality checks and no way of measuring the
strength of each tablet.

"You are playing with rocket fuel and a box of matches.

"Steer right clear of it because if you don't you could be
dead."

Drug dealers sell the drug for up to $100 a tablet.